Casey's Wall

Growing up in 1970s Wisconsin Carolyn Hermann dreams of becoming a special-education teacher. But she has no idea how demanding her chosen vocation will be until she begins her first job: teaching autistic children in Midlands South Carolina.<p><p> Carolyn's class contains five high-functioning little boys one of whom Casey Ross captures her imagination. Convinced that he is emotionally disturbed rather than autistic--partly because she believes his mother is remote and uncaring--Carolyn fantasizes about curing Casey even though her program director supports the diagnosis of autism.<p><p> The following year Carolyn is assigned to teach a class of severely disabled students. Dealing with them is an enormous challenge and she misses Casey. Burned out after two difficult years Carolyn leaves teaching to become a homemaker and mother. Yet despite the fulfillment she finds in this role she feels like a failure for abandoning her students.<p><p> Many years later Carolyn has returned to teaching and attends a convention where she encounters Casey's mother now a disability-rights attorney. The two women reconnect and find that they have a great deal in common. <p><p> And finally their reunion provides the answer to a question that's haunted Carolyn for decades: Whatever happened to Casey Ross?